25Mar Cardinal Bergoglio will make an interesting pope

In 2009, Cardinal Bergoglio spoke about modern slavery in Buenos Aires: ‘Therefore the Word of God says us: “Shouts with force and without fear” and I today say: “We shout with force and without fear.” No to the slavery. No to the ones considered excess. No to the youth, men and women as discardable material. It is our very flesh that is in jeopardy! It is our very flesh that is sold! The same flesh I have, that you have, is for sale! And you will not be moved [to compassion] for the flesh of your brother? “No, he is not the same as I”… He is your brother, he is your flesh.’

The question is: does this relate to any situation in Ireland or the EU today? Do the “markets” make slaves of people? If so, where is the prophetic voice?

For another side to him, you might enjoy this ten-minute video of Cardinal Bergoglio’s homily at a diocesan Mass for children in 2011. It starts with the gospel acclamation, then the gospel (healing of centurion’s servant), and then the homily. It’s in Spanish, but even without Spanish, you can see how the children respond to him, and vice versa. Can you imagine a cardinal (or Pope) bringing Pinocchio into the homily? With a puppet to underline it?! It’s here:

Pádraig McCarthy

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4 Responses

I have found tremendous joy and hope with this new Pope Francis, and I continue to believe that he is a blessing for the Church and the world! I see that by being the man, priest, bishop, and pope that he is, he is, modelling what it is to be an authentic disciple of Christ. On this point of “slavery”, I do have some concern. My concern, is what I call a “spiritual slavery” in the Church. I sincerely hope that Pope Francis does not consider the “spiritual slavery” within the Church to be a petty problem, compared to global spiritual slavery, as in poverty and injustice. Our Church’s spiritual slavery is extremely important; it is also injustice and affects many real lives, e.g. theologians being dismissed or censored (priests like Father Flannery being accused and threatened); bishops and bishops’ synods being ignored … and on the list goes. I am somewhat concerned that when Pope Francis embraces Benedict as his “brother”, he also excuses the hypocrisy and corruption that accompanied Benedict’s pontificate. While I’m overjoyed to see what Francis has done already and the calibre of man and priest that he is,……I sincerely hope that he does not delay or indeed, ignore, the practices of the CDF or of any other Curia activity. He needs to move quickly in terms of the Church’s internal matters. His credibility for me rests on this, and certainly, I’m looking to him for addressing the “slavery and slavery situations” we find in the Church. As we move through this Holy Week from death to new life at Easter,I hope and pray, that Pope Francis is recognizing the darkness of the Church and plans to lead us into an Easter Joy!

Joe O'LearyMarch 26th, 2013 at 2:16 am

delightful

June McAllisterMarch 26th, 2013 at 11:19 am

Maybe when Francis embraced Benedict he was forgiving him, rather than excusing him. Do you think?

Thank you Padraig for that 10 minute video of Cardinal Bergoglio’s homily at a diocesan children’s Mass in 2011. Even with my limited knowledge of Spanish I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope now as Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis will continue to bring that same spirit of creativity, vitality and response to the CDF and Curia, as he moves into his pontificate.

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